Gurre-Lieder is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by Robert Franz Arnold). The title means "songs of Gurre", referring to Gurre Castle in Denmark, scene of the medieval love-tragedy (related in Jacobsen's poems) revolving around the Danish national legend of the love of the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag (Valdemar IV, 1320–1375, spelt Waldemar by Schoenberg) for his mistress Tove, and her subsequent murder by Valdemar's jealous Queen Helvig (a legend which is historically more likely connected with his ancestor Valdemar I).

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In 1900, Schoenberg began composing the work as a song cycle for soprano, tenor and piano for a competition run by the Wiener Tonkünstler-Verein (Vienna Composers' Association). It was written in a lush, late-romantic style heavily influenced by Richard Wagner. According to Schoenberg, however, he "finished them half a week too late for the contest, and this decided the fate of the work."[1] Later that year, he radically expanded his original conception, composing links between the first nine songs as well as adding a prelude, the Wood Dove's Song, and the whole of Parts Two and Three. He worked on this version sporadically until around 1903, when he abandoned the mammoth task of orchestrating the work and moved on to other projects.[citation needed]

By the time he returned to the piece in 1910, he had already written his first acknowledged atonal works, such as the Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 11, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 and Erwartung, Op. 17. He had also come under the spell of Gustav Mahler, whom he had met in 1903 and whose influence may be discernible in the orchestration of the latter parts of the Gurre-Lieder. Whereas Parts One and Two are clearly Wagnerian in conception and execution, Part Three features the pared-down orchestral textures and kaleidoscopic shifts between small groups of instruments favoured by Mahler in his later symphonies. In Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd, Schoenberg also introduced the first use of Sprechgesang (or Sprechstimme), a technique he would explore more fully in Pierrot Lunaire of 1912.[2] The orchestration was finally completed in November 1911.[3]

Franz Schreker conducted the premiere of the work in Vienna on 23 February 1913. By this time, Schoenberg was disenchanted with the style and character of the piece and was even dismissive of its positive reception, saying "I was rather indifferent, if not even a little angry. I foresaw that this success would have no influence on the fate of my later works. I had, during these thirteen years, developed my style in such a manner that to the ordinary concertgoer, it would seem to bear no relation to all preceding music. I had to fight for every new work; I had been offended in the most outrageous manner by criticism; I had lost friends and I had completely lost any belief in the judgement of friends. And I stood alone against a world of enemies."[4] At the premiere, Schoenberg did not even face the members of the audience, many of whom were fierce critics of his who were newly won over by the work; instead, he bowed to the musicians, but kept his back turned to the cheering crowd. Violinist Francis Aranyi called it "the strangest thing that a man in front of that kind of a hysterical, worshipping mob has ever done."[5]

It would be wrong to assume that Schoenberg considered Gurre-Lieder a composition of no merit, however. A few months after the premiere he wrote to Wassily Kandinsky, "I certainly do not look down on this work, as the journalists always suppose. For although I have certainly developed very much since those days, I have not improved, but my style has simply got better ... I consider it important that people give credence to the elements in this work which I retained later."[6]

The Dutch first performance, directed by Schoenberg himself, was in March 1921 in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw[7]. Schoenberg's champion and former pupil, the BBC programme planner Edward Clark, invited the composer to London to conduct the first British performance on 27 January 1928, in a translation by David Millar Craig.[8][9] Clark had tried to have the premiere the previous year, on 14 April 1927, but these plans fell through.[10]Leopold Stokowski conducted the American premiere on 8 April 1932, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, soloists and chorus.

Stokowski's performances on 9 and 11 April 1932 were recorded 'live' by RCA (see below). The company issued the 11 April performance on twenty-seven 78rpm sides, and this remained the only recording of the work in the catalogue until the advent of LP; it was eventually reissued on LP and CD. Bell Laboratories had been experimentally recording the Philadelphia Orchestra in high fidelity and stereophonic sound; RCA used the new technology to record the performances on 33 1/3 rpm masters.[citation needed]

A performance of Gurre-Lieder without intermission runs over an hour and a half. Riccardo Chailly's 1990 Decca recording, for example, lasts more than 100 minutes and takes two compact discs.[11] In 2014 the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam was the first company to perform the Gurre-Lieder as a stage presentation, in a production directed by Pierre Audi.[12]

The cantata is divided into three parts. Whereas the first two parts are scored for solo voices and orchestra only, the third part introduces a further two soloists, a narrator, three four-part male choruses as well as a full mixed chorus.

In the first part of the work (approx. 1 hour), the love of Waldemar for Tove and the theme of misfortune and impending death are recounted in nine songs for soprano and tenor with orchestral accompaniment. A long orchestral interlude leads to the Wood Dove's Song which tells of Tove's death and Waldemar's grief.

The brief second part (5 mins) consists of just one song in which the bereft and distraught Waldemar accuses God of cruelty.

In the third part (approx. 45 mins), Waldemar calls his dead vassals from their graves. The undead's restless roaming and savage hunt around the castle at night is thunderously depicted by the male chorus, until the horde, driven by the radiance of the sunrise, recedes back into death's sleep. During this, a peasant sings of his fear of the eerie army and there is a humorous interlude in the grotesque song of the fool Klaus who is forced to ride with the macabre host when he would rather rest in his grave. A gentle orchestral interlude depicting the light of dawn leads into the melodrama The Summer Wind's Wild Hunt, a narration about the morning wind, which flows into the mixed-choral conclusion Seht die Sonne! ("See the Sun!").

Stokowski (1949) recorded the Song of the Wood-Dove in Erwin Stein's edition in 1949, with Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano, and the New York Philharmonic (Columbia Records; reissued on Cala Records).

Stokowski (1961) returned to Gurre-Lieder in 1961 for performances in Philadelphia and again in Scotland, where he and the London Symphony Orchestra opened that year's Edinburgh International Festival with the work. Recordings of the Philadelphia and Edinburgh radio broadcasts have survived, with the 1961 Edinburgh Festival performance having been issued in 2012 on the Guild Historical label. The soloists in that performance were James McCracken (Waldemar), Gré Brouwenstijn (Tove), Nell Rankin (Wood Dove), Forbes Robinson (Peasant), John Lanigan (Klaus the Jester) and Alvar Lidell (Narrator) and chorus was Edinburg Royal Choral Union. (GHCD 2388/89).